Council has not made a decision regarding hiring a group to help them with strategic planning.
At their Jan. 9 meeting, council heard presentations from Ballard Consulting Group and Austrom Consulting with regards to the planning issue.
Ballard Consulting Group was available for a cost of $24,650 plus GST and Austrom Consulting charged $14,200 plus GST.
During his presentation Brian Austrom gave an overview of his past experience with planning for communities and municipalities. He advised that Liz Armitage, who is his daughter, would be working with him on the strategic planning.
He suggested a public meeting be held to determine the key areas, issues and establishing goals for the next four years.
In their presentation Darryl Lagerquist and Chris Schmaltz of Ballard Consulting Group talked about the definition of a strategic plan, determining a goal for such a plan and establishing a way to get there.
He noted phase one of a strategic plan deals with mandate and issues discovery, phase two, engagement planning and design, phase three is strategy, implementation and planning and phase four is comprised of strategy and implementation reporting.
Mayor Rick Pankiw said council would take both presentations into consideration and also plan to consult with a representative from Central Alberta Economic Development to see what they can bring to the table.
“It’s another option,” he said.